Chick-fil-A -- You Make Me Sad

I am sad today.  As a Christian, in America, I scroll through articles, Tweets and Facebook posts about the record sales at Chick-fil-A yesterday and I cringe.  It's a sad thought that hatred and bigotry are the Face of Christianity today.  That they are held up as a beacons of family and moral values.

In Romans 13:9-10, it says:  The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” LOVE DOES NO HARM TO A NEIGHBOR. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  How have we gotten so far away from that standard?

Jesus mentions loving our neighbor as ourselves many times in his teachings.  In particular, in the familiar story of the Good Samaritan, He is clear about whom we should consider our neighbors.  Our neighbors aren't literally the people who live next door, down the street or around the corner.  Our neighbors aren't just those who are like us.  No, Jesus meant global neighbors, everyone on the planet-- people whom we don't understand;  people we feel are too different to embrace; people whose lifestyles we find confusing, they too are our neighbors.

So what does backing a large company who is fighting against human rights have to do with love?  Nothing.  It is said, they are standing up for traditional values and morality.  Well, if traditional values include devaluing another member of the human race, I DON'T WANT ANY PART OF IT.  I don't want to be lumped together with those who feel it's okay to subjugate others to further their own agenda.

I'm not going to get into an argument about whether homosexuality is a sin.  Those discussion only serve to obscure the facts.  People want to argue about sin using a platform of hate?  It's so incongruous to me that I can't even wrap my brain around it. I won't be dragged into a futile discussion about whether it's a sin, or about whose sin is worse than whose.  What a stupid thing to argue about.  I'm sure Satan loves to watch us go round and round, spinning our own wheels, dividing ourselves into different camps on this issue.  I won't be party to it any more.

One thing I am endeavoring to do today is listen to, and really hear, the words in Romans 9. I can follow that creed by loving everyone around me regardless of our differing views.  It is, however, very difficult to understand how people who profess to be the harbingers of Jesus in the world today are not just indifferent to their neighbor, but actively banding together against them.  This isn't a simple matter of standing up for a principle.  It's a matter of standing AGAINST a group of people.

This is a matter of standing against people who mean us no harm.  Homosexuals are no threat to us, our marriages, or our families.  They are not armed militia or combatants here.  We are talking about a group of people who just want to have the same rights as the majority of us already enjoy.  It makes no sense to see them as the enemy, but even if they were the enemy, we are STILL called to love them (see Matthew 5:42-45).

As for me, today, I don't hate anyone.  I'm not cutting anyone out of my life because I disagree with their tactics.  No, I am in prayer that the Love of God will shine through.  I pray that as Christians we can use our numbers to band together in the name of Jesus, and through him, we can show others his tender mercies and grace; those tender mercies and grace that, above all, are covered in LOVE.  Because I believe there is nothing greater in this world than to be wrapped in His love.